A Little Taste of Home: Onions and Eggs

Gran Fran made me onions and eggs on our most recent visit.

We visited for a little over two weeks, and returned home just before school started. What a good time we had. Tons of good food at every turn, with these onions and eggs as one of my favorite simple meals we were served.

These eggs are great served at room temperature, too. You could easily pack this in a container for a nice hearty lunch. It's also excellent with some cheese added in at the end of cooking, or better yet, some bacon. The little bit of sugar in the mix just heightens  the flavor of the onions.

Make this easy, four ingredient dinner for dinner, serve it alongside a salad and toasted baguette and you've got yourself a great meal.

Onions and Eggs

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Good dose of kosher salt
  • Freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 8 large eggs, beaten just until blended

Method:

  1. Heat large skillet; add olive oil; heat oil over high heat.
  2. Add onions; reduce flame to medium; sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper.
  3. Saute about 20 minutes over low heat---or until golden and reduced by at least half.
  4. On medium heat;stir in eggs; allow to set for three minutes or so.
  5. Stir and fold eggs until they reach desired consistency; serve.

Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce and a Review: America's Test Kitchen Pasta Revolution

Hello friends. I know I've mentioned here a time or two how much I love Cook's Illustrated magazine. Well, I'm even more in love with the America's Test Kitchen Pasta Revolution cookbook, especially their slow cooker pasta sauce.

Now you may think it odd that I, a gluten-free lady, would be psyched about pasta sauce. Well you know what?  A lovely brand of brown rice pasta makes it very easy for me to participate in all things pasta again.

And, you may also wonder why a lady who was raised by another lady who happens to be an excellent Italian-American cook would want a pasta sauce book. I'm here to tell you, we all have our ways of cooking, and pooh-pooh other versions of our tried-and-true recipes. I've never made a tomato sauce that has onions or sugar in it (Gran Fran says that's not the way it's done). Nor have I ever tried to use a slow cooker for sauce (Gran Fran's head is now exploding in NYC while she reads this and discovers that I had the audacity to leave an appliance not only plugged in but on and simmering things for hours on end in an empty house).

I went through the book and found many interesting recipes, including some for Asian style noodles, which happen to be rice, that I will totally try to make. I chose to make the Spicy Sausage Ragu with Red Peppers: it's one of the slow cooker pasta sauce recipes in the book. I'm new to slow cooking (see comment above about Gran Fran's head exploding) and I'm also not the best at actually following all the steps in a recipe. Since I create my own recipes 98 percent of the time, I find it hard to believe that anyone knows better than I how to put something together.

My previous successes with Cook's Illustrated recipes reminded me that I had to take the time to really make this recipe. I made a pact with myself to follow every step in the Ragu recipe, including browning ingredients before throwing them into the slow cooker. I tend to wing it, so this was a true test of my patience. I'd also like to point out that I started cooking this at 6am so that it would be ready for dinner with a friend by 7pm. I think my neighbors are more than fed up with their noisy cooking crazy person on the second floor (that's me, if you didn't catch on) who tends to cook late at night or early in the morning. Who knows? All I know is that a good recipe with clear instructions really floats my boat.

If I can follow this in the wee early morning hours and have a great dish by dinner, I fully recommend this book to all of you. It's especially good for people like me who need to find some discipline and pay attention to directions every once in awhile. As it turns out, I really did enjoy leaving my comfort zone and trying a new version of something I've made hundreds of times. I'm really excited to cook my way through a bunch of these recipes and will be posting my results.

I will say, though, as delicious as this sauce is when first prepared, it is even better re-heated. The initial sauce turned out a bit thin for my liking (my friend, however, said it was just the way she liked it, so maybe it's personal preference). The sauce thickened nicely as the portions were reheated. That said, I loved the flavors, but I have to admit, I left some of the sausages in their skins and cut them up into chunks to go along with the sausage meat. I just love a chunky sauce. Other than that, I followed the recipe to a T and was rewarded with a great sauce.

Give this book a try, even if you consider yourself an advanced cook. America's Test Kitchen recipes always teach me something new and turn out great.

Spicy Sausage Ragu with Red Peppers

(Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce)

Makes 12 cups

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 pounds hot Italian sausage, removed from its casing
  • 2 onions, minced
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano or 2 teaspoon dried
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 (28 oz) can tomato sauce
  • 2 red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into 1/2" pieces
  • 1/2 cup minced fresh parsely
  • Salt & Pepper

Method:

  • Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage and brown well, breaking up large pieces with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes; transfer to slow cooker
  • Add onions, garlic, tomato paste, oregano, and red pepper flakes to fat in skillet and cook over medium-high heat until onions are softened and lightly browned, 8-10 minutes.
  • Stir in wine, scraping up brown bits and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add ingredients to the slow cooker.
  • Stir crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce into the slow cooker.
  • Cover and cook until the sauce is deeply flavored. 9 to 11 hours on low; 5 to 7 hours on high.
  • Let sauce settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using a large spoon.
  • Microwave bell peppers with remaining tablespoon of oil in bowl, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.
  • Stir softened bell peppers into sauce and let sit until heated through, about 5 minutes.
  • Before serving, stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Author's Note:

I received a complimentary copy of

America's Test Kitchen Pasta Revolution.

There was no monetary compensation for this review.

Simply Baked Potatoes

Do you love a good baked potato as much as I do?

I noticed that I rarely make them at home these days. Ordering them in a restaurant is out of the question: they always show up soggy and over cooked. But, they are quite easy to make and reheating them is a snap as well.

A good baked potato can really start your day out well. During High School my Dad (Joe, remember him?) used to give me a baked potato for breakfast on occasion. It was a great, warm breakfast with plenty of butter and I recall it keeping me good and full for the morning.

There were some very nice small russet potatoes available at the market this past weekend. I bought a bunch and cooked them up and cooked them in the evening.

The next morning, I reheated them for a few seconds in the microwave and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast. For myself, I put anchovy butter (recipe here) on one and onion and shallot marmalade (recipe here) on the other. For Ms. Iz (my daughter) I just put plain old butter on the baked potato.

The best breakfast ever! Just as I recalled, it lasted all day and I was happy to pass along a nice breakfast memory from my childhood to my daughter.

Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  • Scrub potatoes under cool water.
  • Cut an X into each potato, not all the way through, to allow the steam to escape as the potatoes cook.
  • Place the potatoes in the hot oven.
  • Cook for about 1 hour, or until the potatoes are soft enough to give a little when pressed with your thumb.
  • Remove from the oven, pop one open, top with your topping of choice and enjoy!

Onion & Shallot Marmalade

Onions, when cooked over a very low heat for quite a long time, can be quite a sweet and comforting food.

The first time I tried to make a slow cooked onion spread, about 14 years ago, I burned it all up. It hadn't occurred to me that there was a lot of sugar in the onion that would be released as it cooked. Sadly, I threw away my first burnt attempt and tried again. After about four tries, I got it right, and have been making this ever since.

This time, I decided to add a shallot and some minced garlic. The flavors get really mellow as they cook down, meld with the olive oil, and give you a dish that tastes like it belongs in Provence. The flavors are sweet and savory all at once, which is my favorite combination.

This marmalade is super easy to make and can be used for a number of things: incorporated into a cooked veggie or meat dish (recipe to come later this week); as a topping for baked potatoes; a spread for toast or added to an egg scramble.

Onion & Shallot Marmalade

Ingredients:

  • 1 large Yellow Onion, chopped into small, even pieces
  • 1 medium Shallot, chopped into small even, pieces
  • 3 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 3/4 cup Olive Oil
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Method:

  • Heat up a small saucepan over medium to high heat.
  • Once pan is heated up, add olive oil.
  • Put the onions, shallots, garlic, salt and pepper into the hot oil.
  • Allow to stay on high heat for about 3 minutes, until the edges of the oil bubble.
  • Stir the mixture and lower the heat to low.
  • Keep on the low flame for up to an hour, stirring constantly.
  • You'll know when it's ready when you see the onions slightly sticking together and looking nice and browned.

Serve on toast, baked potatoes or use as part of a meat or veggie roast.